The drive toward on-exchange FX strengthens as TradeStation facilitates trading on IEX

TradeStation yesterday enabled retail FX clients to execute trades via recently-launched venue IEX, bolstering the drive toward on-exchange FX trading

Interest directed toward the support of the new and innovative IEX platform is growing among some of the world’s prominent names in the FX industry, as MONEX Group’s North American subsidiary TradeStation announced yesterday that it will offer its clients the ability to execute trades with IEX, effective Wednesday, April 9, 2014, making the company the first U.S. retail broker to offer its customers access to this new and growing market center.

IEX is a non-exchange trading venue for buyers and sellers of equities, which caught the attention earlier this week of high-profile hedge fund investor David Einhorn, spurring further notion that IEX may well be heading toward on-exchange FX in addition to its existing equities.

TradeStation, based in Plantation, Florida, currently deploys intelligent order routing to directly connect clients to dozens of market centers and exchanges, electronic communication networks (ECNs), electronic liquidity providers (ELPs), and alternative trading systems (ATSs).

The company also offers clients the option of having their orders routed directly to the exchange or market center of their choice. IEX has been added to the list of venues to which TradeStation clients may directly route their orders.

According to TradeStation, IEX’s ethos centers on institutionalizing fairness in the markets, and that it aims to provide a more balanced marketplace via simplified market structure design and cutting-edge technology. IEX is the first equity trading venue majority owned by a consortium of buy-side investors, including mutual funds, hedge funds, and family offices.

This goes hand in hand with the current direction which other venues have taken recently in considering the addition of exchange-traded FX to their armory, one such example being NASDAQ OMX last month.

Salomon Sredni, CEO of TradeStation Group yesterday made a corporate statement on its establishment of trading via IEX: “We are proud to announce that TradeStation has established connectivity with IEX and will give our clients the option of routing their orders directly to IEX.”

Mr. Sredni, who also holds the concurrent position of COO of MONEX Group continued by concluding that “We strongly support innovation in technology and market structure that seeks to promote fairness and efficiency for all market participants, including retail and institutional traders and investors.”

For the full press release, click here.

For more on the global Forex industry see the LeapRate-Dow Jones Forex Industry Report.

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